Associate images to post/page without inserting

Hi there, newish user to WP and wondering how to associate images with a post (for use in a gallery) without having to click “insert into post” – which inserts the image into the textarea, where I then have to go and delete it.

I only see “insert into post” or “use as featured image”.
Do I really have to insert and then delete it from the textarea?

I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure once it’s uploaded – if you just close that modal window without clicking either, the image is stored in the gallery for that post without being inserted or featured